In what may be either a groundbreaking experiment in neuroscience or a delightful detour into the absurd, researchers at the University of Richmond have successfully taught rats to drive miniature cars. Not content with navigating mazes or pressing levers, these highly motivated rodents were rewarded with Froot Loops for piloting pint-sized plastic vehicles across tiny enclosures, presumably while pondering the pros and cons of ditching Acme for Uber.
Led by Professor Kelly Lambert, the team was investigating how learning complex tasks affects stress and brain function. Apparently, there is nothing quite like operating a rat-sized whip to get those neural circuits firing. The rats, seated in a clear plastic car with aluminum flooring and three copper bars for steering, drove toward cereal treats by touching the bars with their paws to complete an electrical circuit. That’s right, these rats did not just ride around aimlessly like furry toddlers in bumper cars but actually learned to steer, though parallel parking remains off the table for now.
Even more curiously, rats raised in an enriched environment with toys and obstacles showed greater driving skills compared to their cage-bound cousins, suggesting that exposure to fun enhances both spatial skills and the desire to drive toward sugar. In essence, luxury living makes for more ambitious motorists, at least in the rodent world.
As if this were not strange enough, researchers noted that the driving rats appeared less stressed, as measured by hormone levels in their… well, let’s just say a biochemical analysis was involved. This discovery may suggest that mastering a complex skill, even one involving navigating a Hot Wheels fantasy land, offers therapeutic benefits that go beyond breakfast cereal.
The study, published in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, underscores the cognitive flexibility of rats and their capacity to learn tasks that, let’s be honest, half of us would not attempt before coffee. While your Uber driver will not be a rat anytime soon, at this point, it might be only a matter of licensing.
Turns out when it comes to driving for snacks, rats really put the mileage in.